LATEST ADDITIONS

I'm burning with desire. I'm burning Perlman and Pearl Jam, Miles, Little Feat, Nine-Inch Nails, and Collins - both Judy and Phil. I'm also burning with TDK, Harman Kardon, Roxio, Sound Forge, and Nero.

Everything about flat-panel monitors is growing—from panel size to market size. A flat-panel display can utilize one of several different technologies, and Sony has chosen plasma technology for their newest flat panel, the PFM-42B1. Not too long ago, 16:9-shaped plasma displays measured only 38 inches and cost close to $18,000, but times are changing. Like all plasmas, the 42-inch PFM-42B1 is only a monitor—it has no built-in TV tuner. However, it does have one of the highest pixel counts of any plasma display on the market: 1,024 by 1,024. And, in order to get plasma technology into the home, Sony has priced this display at $7,999 for both the consumer and commercial markets.

Switching component video sources is a double-edged sword. For a number of reasons, there's plenty of need for it; however, until recently, it was fairly expensive to do it well (read: without adversely affecting the video signal). Still, there are a number of scenarios in which video switching, transcoding, or distributing high-resolution video (particularly HDTV signals) is important.